


Not a Date

by lureavi



Series: Cohabitors and Co-conspirators [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Matt and Shiro are still pining, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 10:45:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16491068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lureavi/pseuds/lureavi
Summary: Matt and Shiro go on their not-a-date.They don't expect to run into an ex, and have the "whose life is better now" pissing contest.This occurs at the same time as the second chapter of "The First Encounter"





	Not a Date

**Author's Note:**

> It's not necessary to read the other parts of this story to understand this fic, all you really need to know is that Matt and Shiro are domestic partners (and pining fools) who live together to take care of their younger siblings. And, they will insist this is definitely not a date.  
> P.S. That headcanon Shiro's VA has about Shiro having been a TOTAL goofball jokester before Kerberos? I love that. And Shiro is definitely still a mischievous goofball when it's just him and Matt.

_ **Shiro** _

 

Honestly, I shouldn't have agreed to this. This not-really-a-date that we had to drive nearly an hour to. I stare at my hands in my lap, lightly clenching and unclenching my prosthetic hand. It usually helps me calm down a bit when I'm anxious. I can't tell if Matt has noticed or not.

Probably not, I assure myself when I look over at him. His eyes are pretty focused on the road, flicking over intermittently as he's flipping through songs in his playlist. We haven't listened to the same song for more than 20 seconds since leaving the house, but I can't really complain. He knows how relieved I was when he volunteered to drive.

I shouldn't have looked over at him. He actually dressed nice for this, I didn't expect him to pull out his favorite shirt. It's sort of a creamsicle orange color, and fits him nicely, maybe a tad on the tighter side. His hair is as he would always wear it, down to his shoulders and his bangs just barely avoid restricting his vision. He scrunches his nose, mouth curving into a tiny frown as a particularly bad song starts playing. He's incredibly expressive, and I find myself watching a bit too often. Like right now, I've been staring at him. I've been staring at him for a while. I should look away before he notices, but of course as soon as that thought enters my mind, his eyes meet mine. His warm, honey colored eyes surrounded by a sea of little freckles dotting his nose and cheeks.

"Kashi?" He asks, raising an eyebrow, "you alright over there?"

He caught me staring.

"I'm okay!" I insist, the words coming out too fast, "I, uh, I'm just worried about the kids. And you know I'm not the best in cars..." My voice trailed off as I couldn't find the right words. I'm not really too worried about Keith and Pidge, but the latter bit was true. I turn my head back to my lap, trying now to think of something other than the accident.

My heart skips a beat when Matt places his hand over mine, threading his own slim fingers through my bulkier, metallic ones, "Will it help if I distract you?" He asks, but he doesn't give me time to respond, "I'll talk. I can tell stories. The rest of the drive. You can't think about bad things when you're too busy listening to embarrassing stuff we've done, right? Oh man where do I start," his eyes stay glued to the road now, but he rambles, getting into his memory of meeting me for the first time, back in middle school.

He talks about how I came to the science teachers room for help with homework, and instead found Matt trying to steal the lab frogs and set them free. He talks about how he has no idea why I helped him, or why I stayed to comfort him for three hours when we got to the pond, opened the box, and the frogs were already long dead.

I glance over at the GPS mounted to the dashboard. We have a 45 minute drive left, he can't talk through the whole drive without a break. I know I tease him for never shutting up, but 45 minutes?

He continues, and goes into the next story. Freshman year, when I tried to save him from a bully, and we both got our asses kicked until some girl stepped in and saved us. Then later in the year, when we helped that girl prank professor Slav as a thank you. Then that summer, when the two of us had taken a camping trip and forgot our sleeping bags, so we built a makeshift hammock out of our tent and stared at the stars the whole night.

I don't interrupt him, and he only pauses when he snorts too hard and needs a second to recover. I can't help but laugh with him as he walks me through a timeline of his favorite memories with me. I've almost forgotten that I'm in a car, that we're driving down a busy road.

All I focus on is Matt's voice, constant and nearly breathless from laughter, and the feeling of his hand gently squeezing mine.

I can't remember why I was so nervous.

* * *

 

**_Matt_ **

 

Oh man, do I have stories for days. But, I look over at my GPS and we’re only 3 minutes away from the venue, so it’s probably time to wind it down. I glance over to Shiro, he still seems to be listening, and he’s definitely smiling, definitely not having a panic attack at being in a car, but he’s still staring into his lap. And he hasn’t let go of my hand.

It’s cute, yeah, but have you ever driven for almost an hour with only one hand? Muscle man’s real lucky I love him, and I won’t complain about it. Out loud, at least.

“Hey, Kashi, you still with me?” I ask him, “we’re just about there. I’m gonna park in this lot here and we’ll walk the rest of the way. Sound good?”

He looks at me and just blinks, mouth a little open with this dumbstruck expression. “I can’t believe you talked that long.” He sounds shocked. Did he really doubt me?

“You bet your ass I did, I’ll talk the whole way back, too. I’m not out of words yet,” I assure him. With the car parked, I try to take my hand back, but he doesn’t budge. Literally. It’s not a tight grip, but I probably couldn’t pry it open with both my hands and a metal foot.

He must have noticed my effort, though. “What’s wrong,” he asks with a shit-eating grin, “your arm doesn’t detach for situations like this?”

“I knew I shouldn’t have made this damn thing so strong,” I grumble as I try to unbuckle myself and get my keys with my left hand, but even with that done I have no way to get out of the car. “C’mon Bucky, I promise we can hold hands after I get out of the car, and I’m not crawling into your lap to get out your door.”

Uh oh. That smile. That’s the smile of a man with a devious plan.

“Oh no,” I start, “what’s that face for, Shiro, you better not-” I cut myself off with an admittedly undignified shriek as he grabs my shoulder and hauls me to his side of the car. It’s all a blur as I hear the door open and I crash to the ground on top of him, my face smushed into his neck, our legs a mess, and our hands still connected. Of course the asshole is laughing, his eyes closed and head tilted back. I don’t get it. I’ll never get over how responsible he is with Keith and Pidge, how no-nonsense he can be, and then, the moment it’s just us, he turns into this. The second he doesn’t have to be responsible, he’s a child. “You’re literally the worst,” I groan, weakly smacking his chest. Better translated as: I love every part of this big idiot.

I’m so focused on him, I don’t even notice someone’s approaching us until I hear a voice say, “Takashi?”

And, first of all, who the FUCK.

Who the fuck? Who does this person think they are, to call him Takashi? I don’t even call him Takashi all that often, not unless I’m calling him by his full name or we’re having a moment. And I am his legal domestic partner, thank you very much!

Shiro’s laughter dies in his throat with a small choking noise, his widened eyes staring straight up at whoever is casting a shadow over us, “Adam?” He squeaks out.

Oh. That’s who. I don’t even bother looking up. If anything, I make more of a point to not look at this guy, Adam. This guy who Shiro dated through all of college. This guy who broke up with Shiro  _ right after _ Shiro proposed to him. This guy who, if I’m being honest with myself, Shiro never really got over.

And I never really liked him to begin with.

Now, I’m reasonable. While they were dating, I made every single effort to be friendly, be supportive, and not be jealous. Adam still didn’t like me, and had made it fairly well known to Shiro how much he disliked the two of us living together, even if it was in my old family house and for the sake of our business. We both like to think of ourselves as inventors, and in between our personal projects, we take in anything from motorcycles, to fighting bots, to this one time someone came to us with actual helicopter to repair. It made sense to live together, even before we took in our kid siblings, something I’m sure Adam would have found a reason to hate had it not happened two years after the split. I went so far as to extend the offer for Adam to move in with us, which he vehemently refused. The big split was around that time.

I have ample reason to hate him now, after the weeks I spent consoling an absolutely heartbroken Shiro. The guy ate so much ice cream, he almost lost his abs.

It didn’t help that the accident was a few months later. Losing a long-term boyfriend AND an arm in one year? It had been a damn rough year by the end of it.

I can see the pain of it all coming back to Shiro, in his wide eyes and upturned brows, and in an instant he lets go of my hand and scrambles to get to his feet.

I audibly sigh and pick myself off the ground, “Adam. What a coincidence. What brings you here?” I try to ask politely, but I’m sure it came off as more than a little snarky.

I must be right, if Adam’s sneer is anything to go by, “Matt, it’s so nice to see you,” he claims, in a tone that tells me no, it’s really not nice to see me, but his tune immediately changes when he looks back to Shiro, “oh, Takashi, you must be here for the musical too! We should all sit together, how have you been?”

Shiro might as well be a ghost with how much color has drained from his face, but he still extends his hand, “Y-yeah! I, uh, I’ve been good. How about you?”

Despite my barely audible growl of warning, Adam accepts the hand into a shake that lingers far too long for anyone’s comfort but his own, “I’ve been great! You should meet my fiance!” He looks over his shoulder, and calls out a name, but it doesn’t register with me. None of the following conversation does. You want to know why?

Because this guy coming over is  _ hot.  _ I mean I could crack an egg and it would fry on him hot. I would eat that egg right off of him hot. 

Okay, weird analogy, but- oh no. Wait. Hot guy and Adam are engaged. Oooooh no, I bet that’s not sitting well for Shiro. 

Judging by the nervous expression, and his metal hand gripping too hard at the back of his neck, it is not sitting well.

I still don’t register any of the conversation (likely just a “whose life is better without the other” pissing contest) until Shiro looks directly at me, eyes pleading, and says, “actually, Matt and I are married now. Very happily. Isn’t that right, babe?”

Oh.  _ OH. _ What? He’s going to lie?! My head whips towards Adam to see his reaction, and-

Oh. He’s seething. He’s smiling, but it’s clearly cracking, and it doesn’t reach his eyes at all because those suckers are  _ smoldering _ . Score one for  _ Takashi _ .

And score ten thousand for me, as I realize I have just been presented not only with the opportunity to throw myself at Shiro for an entire night, but to make my mortal enemy jealous in the process.

I do what any sane man would.

I wrap my arm around Shiro’s waist, huddle in close to him, and look Adam directly in the eyes as I say, “I’ve never been happier. I can’t imagine why you ever let him go.”

I didn’t even have to lie.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <3 I might add a second part to this. Originally there wasn't going to be one, but this was originally written pre-season 6 with Shiro's ex being Rolo for some reason so clearly things have shifted.


End file.
